R • E • S

he heard the attention grabbing clear, turning his large frame towards the other as his hands busied themselves with leather buckles.  his immediate thought was of what the woman could offer, but he had learned over the last week that it didn’t matter, that every soul who was willing was indeed a helping hand. he pulled the rerebrace from his arm, eyes still fixed on the woman, before nodding. “what is it that you had in mind, my lady?”

•

eaten? the question washed over her a little strangely. for the life of her, she couldn’t remember the last time she consumed anything that wasn’t tea or wine. “i’ve been distracted.” she hummed, pulling herself from her chair to fill her glass with water, something else she’d been neglecting. “I suppose I should eat, but I don’t know what I can stomach at this point.” the water seemed to soothe her lightly as she sipped it slowly, her mind still racing. “I don’t suppose you have any idea how my brother is handling this? has anyone gone missing from the Ceren court?”

•

“i agree, no one is looking to negotiate at present and i do wonder if that was so before the wedding. however it certainly is the case now. it’s such a shame, i’m ready to come to the table, at father’s side but we may be alone in our willingness to come together. and i fear for the fate of this summit if all this is true.” she admitted, a tinge of fear and melancholy in her tone. she observed the dress ellie had pulled and smiled. “this is lovely, i think it will compliment your skin and hair.” she used to be jealous of the fiery red hair her twin sported, wondering if the fire had blessed elle and not herself but that was a long time ago and she knew now the fire shared its blessing with all those who were worthy and that meant both girls. “all i want is to spend time with him, to get to know him but he is staunchly avoiding me sister, shall i chase him down then?”

a single sob falls from her lips as she lifts her bloodied hands to wipe the stray tears from her cheeks, a smudge of red staining her pale cheeks as she looks to the other woman.  noble in look, noble in voice, noble in posture.  she had to compose herself.  branwynn shakes ehr head before attempting to stand upright, flattening her skirts haphazardly with red smudges staining the blue fabric of her dress.  “i’m afraid the fates look down in anger upon me…they have done for a long time.”

• 

      “ i didn’t realize this was a competition. ” but there was no malice in his tone, no spite or disinterest —quite the opposite. amusement glittered in his eyes, shining more favorably to mossy green today than any other of the colors they shone normally. his tone was softer, as if purposefully trying to lure the lady-knight closer, to listen more aptly, to be more invested in the coy game that ser xandros was attempting to play. “ i’m not the knight who plays tricks with spirits. you’re thinking of ser veles —tall and broad like bull with white hair and pretty gold eyes. ” standing side-by-side they were light and darkness, aymeric a shadow cast from the source. and aymeric so often followed behind his closest friend, willing to sacrifice his own time (as if he had better things to spend it on) to ensure shenanigans followed frey wherever he went. he was thankful for their balance —for the strange sort of comfort that frey offered simply by being … though he’d be sore to admit it aloud. especially to frey.

      and the smirk on his lips only widened when she leaned forward: his eyes dropped to her fingers briefly, watching where they shifted and pressed in the slightest of touches. one brow quirked. what a bold thing. “ what makes you so certain i didn’t have one of the necromancers of my kingdom reanimate me? perhaps i’m just an elaborate shell of a man, under the thrall of a sorcerer or sorceress, bound until my body falls to shambles? perhaps you should check, ensure how alive i really am. ”

      her confirmation on the other green knight bearing the same surname had him nodding, readjusting his cheek against the back of his knuckles where he leaned as steadily as he did. “ it seems we’re rowing in the same small boat then, ser laidon. neither of us wishes to be tied down by the bonds and ceremony of marriage. it’d just muddy things up. ” mercifully he’d never been betrothed, though his station as a knight did not rise him above the propositions of it. aymeric would sooner find his own fingers missing from his dominant hand than allow something so harsh to chain him down. obligation. it made his mouth feel dry for the thought of it.

      “ whoever gave you the idea that wheldrake was shrouded in mystery of all things … shadows, surely. we’ve got bogs and mires and the city itself is always covered in mist or overcast but mystery is not apart of our weather or nature. i think you’ve spent too much of your wild youth listening to tall tales. be careful with those, they’ll have you believing we’re all heathens who dance naked under the stars at each religious affair when in reality we just do that for the blood moons. ” so matter-of-fact, where his jests laced themselves into his words, no intonation change in his tone to suggest that he slipped from fact to fiction at any point. though there was the softest of chuckles, something that eased from his lips like honey, “ truly, an open book. lies serve no one, save themselves. ”

•

“That’s not my fault, is it?” Her lip twitched, betraying her own amusement as he spoke and she fiddled with her goblet. She thought of the other knight, one who’d fought by this knight’s side during the wedding chaos. Before whisking off in the direction of her brother, Rhea had seen the two back to back, practiced and skilled in combat beside each other. It was clear as day. “It seems like quite a lot of work, to facilitate reanimation from beyond the grave,” she didn’t know a lot about necromancy beyond the basics most knew. “Though, perhaps you’re not the sort to strive for the easy path in life and, maybe you would even welcome the challenge of facilitating your own reanimation.” 

She shrugged before a small but genuine bout of laughter escaped and Rhea nodded, twisting up the knife at on the table between nimble fingers as if not a sharp edge existed on the thing. “I could very easily check if you like, all men bleed, no?” The smirk on her lips belied the fact that her words were in jest, despite the truth in them as she pointedly ignored the other meaning of his own as she gave him an honest look. “However, I think, ser Xandros, you are more alive than most here.” He seemed to grab life by the fistful, even from her limited interactions with him , and not let go. There was something about it that made her wonder if he was actually desperate to feel alive, to grab onto any experience, even one sitting across from a stranger and exchanging jibes to feel grounded in this world. It was only a guess, Rhea’s observant nature lending her that much. But, if it were true, it seemed the most human thing a person could do. “But, then again,” she shrugged, “I am hardly one to make such statements of a stranger.” But she didn’t think she was wrong. 

They were that too. Strangers. Though the way they spoke felt like they hadn’t always been. A silly thought, but one that felt true nonetheless. “Muddy things up and for what? Are people so frightened of broken promises they chain themselves together?” Rhea set the knife down, having almost forgotten it was in her hands and shook her head. She thought that if two people were meant to be, they would always be so, regardless of vows or ceremonies. Of course, she didn’t say as much and instead shifted her focus to Wheldrake as he spoke of his homeland. “Shadows are mysteries in and of themselves. No one, save those who command them, can see what lies beyond a shadow and that is itself a mystery, or do you disagree?” Gullivere was far different, her home full of sunlight streaming through branches, of lush greens and burn oranges. Even during the coldest months, when green faded to grey and snow covered branches, she didn’t feel the cold she imagined Wheldrake possessed throughout all seasons. 

“i am too much of a gentleman to counteract that statement,” he throws her a cheeky smirk as they walk, his fingers flexing at his side as he resists the urge to reach out to her.  “i owe them and i will keep owing them till they have rejoined the earth and the fire is ready to engulf me myself.  if it were not for my aunt and uncle then…i would be nothing more than a beggar on the streets of feyre.”  his lips soften, as do his eyes, as he thinks of his aunt and uncle  -  the only family he has left.  “you are dressed like a common maiden, yet your words still hold so much eloquence, ellie.  its a wonder you’re able to blend in at all,”  laughing softly, the warrior pats his free hand over hers before searching out the bakers. “i fear this may not be the last of attacks we may suffer here in welkin, call it a sixth sense, but i believe that someone somewhere wishes for war more than they do peace and will stop at nothing until all of the kingdoms are at eachothers throats.”

•

“Of course you are,” Ellie laughed good-naturedly, knocking shoulders with him. It was easy to pretend that they were just two people, enjoying a stroll to the baker’s. To pretend that death wasn’t looming over all of Welkin. It would have been easy if that were the truth. But it was not and she knew that even venturing out into the city unaccompanied was something her father wouldn’t have tolerated had he known. Especially not after the wedding. So it suited that her closest friend was also a warrior of Feyre, someone who could hold their own. 

“just barely it seems, for those of us searching for peace, and others war.” she had the feeling the watchers had quite a lot of power and she didn’t want to be caught unawares. losing one had meant the return of all their gifts and it angered her to know they were controlling all the people in such a way, even if it was safer to not have those gifts available to everyone here. “i’m not sure how much consideration father might have put into my happiness, but at least i know he’d have done what is best for feyre and i can satisfy myself with that thought.” she responded, not too eager about her match thus yet.  “handsome, i suppose but i’d hope for more, if i was selfish enough and maybe i am.”

he calmed as she took him in her arms, his heart beating in his ears as he attempted to quell the anxious energy that swirled about in his gut. drago had always been an anxious child, but he was able to cover most of his emotions well, even from his own sisters.

“you’re right.” he sniffed, wiping at his face. “i– should trust in the fire. i will be justly rewarded. the flame knows my heart.” they were words he repeated to himself often in times of trouble. he knew, too, he was the most devoted to the fire faith of the royal family, but that didn’t trouble him much. “i should– be getting to bed. i have drunken much tonight.”

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